Help Charging Issues

[Biaviian]

Using a 10W 2.1 Amp charger my phone will not charge past 89%. Using a 1.5 amp charger it also won't charge past 89%. Using a car charger or the travel charger included with the phone will take it to 100%. Any ideas? The only thing I can think of is the length of the USB cable. I know somebody did an evaluation for the N10 or N7 on the quality of the charge as you go to a longer USB cable. When it only gets to 89% I am using a 5' cable. Do you think that would be the issue? I plan on running a test tonight once my phone needs to be recharged but I thought I'd post in the meantime. If this phone can't fully charge with a 5' cable that will be very inconvenient.

 

[hmorneau]

I use the LG charger and a 10' cable and it's charging fine (a bit slower then with a shorter cable). But it always charge to 100%

 

[Biaviian]

Thanks for the reply. That tells me there must be something with these other chargers that the phone does not like. I wonder if having too many amps could be the issue. I have used these chargers on other phones (iPhone 3gs, 4s, Gnex, N4, N7, and N10) without issues but this N5 is causing me headaches when it comes to charging.

 

[Biaviian]

I guess it could also be the USB cables that I am using. While I am using two I am using two that are from the same manufacturer and the same model.

 

[jhawkkw]

The length of a cord does affect how much current makes it to the end, so it's a possibility. It could also be a fail safe or glitch in the programming if you try to push too much current. I believe the stock charger is 1.2, so those 1.5/2.1 but might triggering it.

 

[Biaviian]

Yes, stock is 1.2. I'm not sure what my car charger is but I can't imagine it is 1.2 because it was advertised as a rapid charger. I'll have to check.

 

[Biaviian]

The charger that I mistook as 1.5 amps is really 1. I used it last night with the same 5' USB cable and it charged to 100%. I believe this tells me that if you use a charger with more than 1.2 amps it will not charge 100%. I'd be interested to see what it does with 1.5 amps.

 

[cgfw201]

Pretty annoying that all my S3/S4/blackberry chargers are now redundant. Well nearly, they do charge the N5 but only at about 1% every 20 minutes or so which isn't much use.

 

[mmoy]

My son ran into some funny issues with his Nexus 4 - it wouldn't charge with my car's USB port but that was because the power output was too low. The Nexus 4 apparently wants a certain level of power. He mainly uses his laptop and the included charger. I haven't tried my wife's Nexus 5 with different chargers - she just uses the included charger. I find that I can use anything with my iPhone and the 10 Watt chargers work really great - whether they come from Android or Apple chargers.

It's good to know about the individual quirks on phones, chargers and cables.

I do plan on getting a wireless charger for my wife's phone.

 

[Harry2]

What %-charging level a battery can reach is also depending of the Li-Ion cell's max charging voltage. There are different types of Li-based batteries which differ on their overvoltage protecting (OVP) levels: 4.2V and 4.35V. I don't know what OVP the N5's battery has, e.g. my HTC has 4.2V, the SGS4 has 4.35V

But you'd look after it if you install a battery monitor app like 'Battery Monitor Widget' or GSam and look what voltage level is reached: With the charger that charging 100% and with the other that charging 89%.
If the charger that charges 89% would show less voltage, then that would be the cause.
And rise the question why the OVP is decreased

Source: Battery University

 

[Biaviian]

The charger that I mistook as 1.5 amps is really 1. I used it last night with the same 5' USB cable and it charged to 100%. I believe this tells me that if you use a charger with more than 1.2 amps it will not charge 100%. I'd be interested to see what it does with 1.5 amps.

This post actually didn't make sense. Originally I used a 2 amp port in a multi-port charger and a dedicated 2.1 amp charger (10w iPad charger). Both stopped charging at 89%. Last night I used the same USB cable and same multi-port charger but I used a 1 amp port rather than a 2 amp port. Doing so took the phone to a full 100% charge overnight.